Tag Archives: Islamic radicalization

Online retail giant Amazon.com is profiting from the sale of speeches and writings by one of the world’s most notorious terrorists despite objections from those who argue the website is facilitating the dissemination of jihadist propaganda.

Al-Awlaki’s materials are not being sold by Amazon directly but via third parties in the Amazon Marketplace, which acts as a clearinghouse for books, videos, and CDs. Amazon acts as an intermediary and facilitates the sale, taking a portion of the proceeds in the process.

Amazon has failed to remove the writings following multiple appeals from United States terrorism experts who argue that the international online store is aiding the spread of terrorism.

The German government has launched a nationwide poster campaignaimed at fighting against the radicalization of young Muslim immigrants.

The ad campaign is the brainchild of German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, who has been leading Germany’s multifaceted response (here, here and here) to the rise of radical Islam there.

Beginning on September 21, the posters, which feature photos of four different Muslims under the caption “MISSING,” will be put up in the immigrant areas in Germany’s large cities (mainly in Berlin, Hamburg and Bonn), and will feature text in German, Turkish and Arabic.

The Interior Ministry says the posters — which feature a helpline telephone number for worried acquaintances and relatives — are designed to “counter radicalization” and “provide support.”

One of the posters includes the word “MISSING” in very large print above a portrait of a young man with dark hair and reads: “This is our son Ahmad. We miss him, because we do not recognize him anymore. He is withdrawing more and more, becoming more radical every day. We are afraid of losing him altogether — to religious fanatics and terrorist groups.”

According to documentation published by the anti-radicalization center, “Parents, relatives, friends and teachers are often the first to notice that a young person is becoming radicalized, and are also often the last people with whom a young person maintains contact despite becoming increasingly isolated. In order to provide them with the best possible support in such a difficult situation and so to jointly counter the radicalization of the people close to you, professional consulting services are now available.”

The text continues: “German Interior Minister Friedrich, within the framework of the ‘Prevention Summit’ on June 24, 2011, confirmed that the radicalization of Muslim youth and young adults by Islamist groups would be resolutely pursued. The counseling center is an important element of this. Those within the social environment of the affected individuals are usually the first to notice when a son, student, friend or colleague change their religious attitude or even their entire worldview, increasingly withdraw from their existing environment, turn off from their past and embrace a radical spectrum, and are increasingly guided by ideologies that are incompatible with the principles of a liberal democratic state.”

“Missing”According to the center, the victims “often pull back sharply from their previous environment and refuse to ‘mix’ anymore. This leads to friends, but especially parents, to uncertainty: they are in a conflict between the potentially welcome religiosity of the child and the concomitant concern that their child might fall into the ‘wrong circles’ and that they might lose contact with them. This is especially true for non-Muslim parents, whose children have converted to Islam, and who have many questions about Islam as a religion.”

The text concludes: “In these cases, professional advice is important and necessary. It is important to recognize the problem as such and to accept to resolve pressing issues and finally to consider ways to counter the radicalization process. The ‘Radicalization Advice Center’ at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees is in close contact with various consultancies and knows contact persons as well as networks for special topics in all areas. The offer of counseling is for all citizens provided free of charge.”

According to the Interior Ministry, the Radicalization Advice Center is currently handling about 20 cases, mostly involving German parents whose children have converted to Islam. The objective of the poster campaign, which will cost about €300,000 ($375,000), is to reach out to Muslim parents who may be concerned about the radicalization of their children.

Soeren Kern is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the New York-basedGatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him onFacebook.

Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) today released a video (www.nuextremism.com) showing Northeastern University’s Muslim Chaplain, Imam Abdullah Faaruuq to be a supporter of convicted Islamist terrorists, and a religious leader who is inciting Boston Muslims against the U.S government.

“Our video shows that there is a culture of extremism at the Islamic Society of Northeastern University (ISNU) – the Muslim student group on campus under the leadership of its spiritual advisor, Imam Faaruuq,” said human rights activist Dr. Charles Jacobs, APT President.

Just days after a description of the findings documented in the video were published in the Boston Jewish Advocate, and the video’s imminent public release was announced, Imam Faaruuk’s page on the Northeastern website was removed.

Charles Jacobs, President of APT said, “His relationship with Northeastern University has been terminated.” We commend Northeastern’s President Joseph Aoun for this, but more needs to be done. We need to understand how this was allowed to persist for years, and we need to be sure there are processes in place to monitor and correct any teachings of hate at the University.

APT’s video, “Islamic Extremism @ Northeastern University,” (www.nuextremism.com) describes Imam Faaruuq’s history of extremism. In the early 1990s, Faaruuq developed an association with Aafia Siddiqui, Pakistani born, young MIT student and one of the most active members of an Al Qaeda cell of activists who were followers of the Egyptian Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Aafia attended Faaruuq’s Boston mosque and worked with Faaruuq to distribute Jihadist literature to Massachussetts prisons, where he had also served as a Muslim chaplain.
In 2004, FBI Director Robert Mueller described Aafia Siddiqui as one of the seven most wanted Al Qaeda terrorists. In 2008 Siddiqui was arrested in Afghanistan and charged with attempted murder of FBI agents. In her possession were plans for a chemical attack on New York City and a large amount of cyanide. In 2010, she was convicted and sentenced to 86 years in jail.

In lectures around Boston, Faaruuq has called on Boston Muslims to defend Siddiqui because “after they’re finished with Aafia, they’re gonna come to your door.” He told worshippers to not be afraid to “grab onto the gun and the sword, go out into this world and do your job.”

The German state of Lower Saxony has published a practical guide to extremist Islam to help citizens identify tell-tale signs of Muslims who are becoming radicalized.

Security officials say the objective of the document is to mitigate the threat of home-grown terrorist attacks by educating Germans about radical Islam and encouraging them to refer suspected Islamic extremists to the authorities.

The move reflects mounting concern in Germany over the growing assertiveness of Salafist Muslims, who openly state that they want to establish Islamic Sharia law in the country and across Europe.

The document states: “The threat posed by Islamic terrorist organizations continues apace, and the risk of radicalization and recruitment by Islamists continues unabated. Young Muslims are being courted by Islamist propaganda. The threat level in Western countries has escalated to a higher level. A particular risk increasingly stems from self-radicalized individuals or small groups without formal networks of connections. This poses special problems for law enforcement. The long-term strategic objective of these Islamist organizations is to destabilize democratically and liberally oriented states and to influence political decision-making.”

The document continues: “Islamist terrorism poses a significant threat to the internal security of Germany. National security authorities have identified at least 235 Islamists with German citizenship who have sought or received paramilitary training in places such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia. It is assumed that more than half of these individuals have returned to Germany. Of these, approximately ten are currently in prison. There is a very real danger that these individuals have returned to Germany with the aim of committing acts of terrorism.”

According to the report, German security agencies estimate that approximately 1,140 individuals living in Germany pose a high risk of becoming Islamic terrorists. The document also states that up to 100,000 native Germans have converted to Islam in recent years, and that “intelligence analysis has found that converts are especially susceptible to radicalization…Security officials believe that converts comprise between five to ten percent of the Salafists.”

The document provides a frank assessment of political Islam. It describes Islamism as “a political ideology that disputes the constitutional order of the Federal Republic of Germany. Unlike secular extremist ideologies like Communism or National Socialism, which are not based on religious ideas, Islamism is based on the religion of Islam. At the core, Islamists advocate a politicized form of Islam. Religion for them is not only an individual matter of faith, but Islam is seen as a comprehensive political-religious societal concept. Islamist organizations and movements, despite their differences, all seek to create societies based on the legal system of Sharia. This law divides people according to their beliefs, their gender and their relationship to the Islamic state in different legal categories. It rejects the idea of democratically legitimized governance, particularly by non-Muslims over Muslims, because only Allah is recognized as a sovereign. Thus Islamism, with its strict commitment to Sharia, is directed against the Constitution and the rights and freedoms guaranteed therein, equality and respect for human rights. The Islamic idea of a theocratic state and social system is also opposed to the principle of popular sovereignty and the separation of powers.”

The document also includes a list of 26 “possible characteristics of radicalization processes” to help German citizens identify potential radicalization.

Some of the items on the list include: “critical questions about Islam are viewed as an attack on the addressed person or group; questioning certain views on the interpretation of Islam is interpreted as a betrayal of the group; increasingly stringent interpretation of religion; rejection or aggression against anything “Western;” Islam is the solution, the so-called Western world is seen as the cause for all the problems; dualistic worldview, applying a strict friend-foe schema; repeating Islamist slogans; religious strictness is required of the entire society; Muslims with different orientation (that is, Shiites) are called infidels.”

Other items on the list include: “visiting radical mosques or Islamic or preachers; participating in religious seminaries with radical preachers; solidifying contacts with other radical extremists and individuals; visiting Islamist websites; watching films that promote violent jihad; increasing willingness to aggressively and violently enforce religious or religiously colored political claims on others (possibly by also increasing interest in weapons); potentially criminal activity against property and persons with reference to the inferiority of the so-called infidels and/or committed to harm the alleged enemies of Islam; implementation of survival training, combat training or similar paramilitary activities; frequent and/or lengthy trips to countries with majority Muslim populations, particularly language classes, visits to paramilitary training camps; preoccupation with life after death or martyrdom; changes in financial position (no verifiable income or sudden debt).”

Not surprisingly, the document has been greeted with outrage by Muslims, who have accused the government of Lower Saxony of “scare-mongering.” The opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) has described it as “absurd” and “outrageous.”

Interior Minister Uwe Schünemann has rejected the criticism; he says he has no intention of withdrawing the document, which is part of a concerted strategy by German officials to step up their monitoring of Salafist groups after a series of violent clashes with police.

Soeren Kern is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him onFacebook

No government officials should be penalized for their inaction while they watched an online al-Qaida organizer persuade U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan to murder twelve of his fellow soldiers at Foot Hood in 2009, says the final report of an independent panel.

“Although we are critical of certain actions and omissions, we do not regard any of those actions to be misconduct that would warrant administrative or disciplinary action,” said the third-last paragraph on the 150-page report, titled “Final Report of the William H. Webster Commission.”

“Some missteps occurred because there was no stated policy or binding directive in place that would have required different actions … [but] absent formal policy guidance on the assignment and resolution of Routine leads, the delay cannot be said to involve misconduct,” said the paragraph.

The report was overseen by William Webster, who headed the FBI from 1978 to 1987.

The report was distributed July 20 with the announcement that Republican Rep. Frank Wolfe will hold a August 1 committee hearing on the report. The witness will include an FBI official, Mark Giuliano, who is the executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch.

The report says Hasan yelled the Islamic war-cry — “Allahu akbar!” which means “Allah is supreme” — as he shot his fellow Americans in Fort Hood.

On his business card, Hasan described himself as a “soldier of Allah,” who is the Muslim god.

In place of Islamic texts, the report blames Hasan’s self-described religious motivation on a non-religious psychological process of “violent radicalization.”

On page seven, the report declares that “most terrorists are psychologically normal as individuals, and do not fit a medical diagnostic category.” However, the report argues that “radicalization occurs when followers submit to the collective identity and leaders identify a shared enemy as a target for violent behavior.”

The report did not treat Islamic radicalization as a subset of radicalization amid the many jihadi attacks on U.S. civilians and soldiers, but instead lumped it under a very broad category of “radicalization.”

“Radicalization — whether based on religious, political, social, or other causes — challenges the capability and capacity of the FBI and other members of the U.S. Intelligence Community to identify, collect, analyze, and act on accurate intelligence in time to detect and deter those who would commit violence,” says the report.